The Felixstowe Port in eastern England has gone on an 8-day strike after refusing a settlement from the operating company. It joins an assortment of other strikes in the UK.
about half the uk total, filled with everything from food and consumer goods to car parts. but for the next eight days, nothing will be moving. the port of felixstowe says the strike is disappointing and believes the pay offer is reasonable. the numbers they quoted are fanciful, they aren t anything like the profit we make, but we do make a profit. we are a successful business, and it is because we are a successful and profitable business that we pay well here. this follows disputes at royal mail, bt, british airways and the rail operators, pressure on the incoming prime minister, then, to set out a plan to tackle the rising cost of living. 7%, 8%, 9% pay rises, a few years ago, anyone would have bitten your hand off. this soaring rate of inflation is fuelling most of these disputes. the department for transport said felixstowe is well set to mitigate disruption and supply chains
disruptions. it is limited, it s only eight days, as they say. prolonging this might mean they have to divert the infrastructure, the infrastructure might not be able to cope. to put that into context, very recently during the covid situation, the port was not able to meet the demands so a lot was diverted to different parts of europe and then containers loaded in rotterdam and passed through smaller ports in the uk, but that means time, cost and delays and consumers have to bear the brunt of that. dr kamran mahroof. talking to me earlier on about the situation at felixstowe port. as we ve been reporting, the daughter of one of president putin s close allies, aleksandr dugin, has been killed in a bomb attack. russian media says darya dugina died after her car exploded near moscow.
as she was driving home. the exam board pearson has apologised after some btec students did not receive their results as expected last thursday, throwing university places into doubt. and if you havejustjoined us, a warm welcome to bbc news. we begin at this hour with the strike at felixstowe port. dockers at britain s largest container port, felixstowe, have gone on strike for the first time in three decades. almost 2,000 workers are taking part in the eight day action, after rejecting a 7% pay offer. there are warnings that the strike will cause disruption to supply
of felixstowe every year, about half the uk total, filled with everything from food and consumer goods to car parts. but for the next eight days, nothing will be moving. the union claims the port of felixstowe made £2a0 million in profit over the last two years and could be more generous. the average wage here. but the company insists the current offer is fair and reasonable. it s because we re a successful company that we pay well and we pay a0% above the national average. it s because we are successful, because we are profitable, we ve managed to make an offer to our workers that we re really pleased with. the strike here follows a summer of walk outs at rail operators across the uk and disputes at royal mail, british airways and bt. pressure is mounting on the incoming prime minister to set out a plan to tackle the rising cost of living. one of the features of all of these strikes is that there is no help from government. the government isn t helping people. it s not dealing with i